1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a shoulder rest for use with a violin or a violin-like instrument and more particularly to such a shoulder rest having a rack rail based mechanism adapted to perform a fine, precise width adjustment and having other improved characteristics.
2. Description of Related Art
Numerous shoulder rests for violin are provided in prior art. A particular type of such prior shoulder rest for violin is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,031,163 as shown in FIG. 1. It describes two supports 2 each having a number of openings 22 on its horizontal foot portion. Also, a number of threaded openings 51 are provided on a base 5. A thumbscrew 6 is driven through selected ones of the openings 22 and 51 for fastening the support 2 at the base 5. For adjusting a distance between the supports 2 (i.e., width of violin), unfastening the thumbscrew 6, aligning an unused opening 22 or 51 with another used or unused opening 51 or 22, and driving the thumbscrew 6 through the aligned openings 51 and 22 prior to fastening again will be sufficient.
But this is unsatisfactory for the purpose for which the invention is concerned for the following reasons: The spacing between two adjacent openings 22 or between two adjacent openings 51 is large (i.e., the number of openings 22 or 51 being small), thereby prohibiting a fine distance (i.e., width) adjustment between clamping elements 1. Moreover, the adjustment involves threadedly unfastening and fastening processes. Hence, it is time consuming. Thus, the need for improvement still exists.